Mia and Rob Sandberg, Proprietors of Root Floral and Lucia

Our guests today are Mia and Rob Sandberg, husband and wife, and a dynamic duo of entrepreneurship!

Mia is the proprietor of Root Floral on Jefferson Street in Downtown Lafayette, 810 Jefferson Street. The shop is open Tuesday – Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. unless an event taking place.. Her company specializes in providing floral arrangements for events, weddings, and everyday flowers.  They offer a subscription service where you can sign up to give periodical gifts of flowers to that special someone. Open for walk-in arrangements, Root Floral’s stock varies from day to day, so Mia advises people to order online or call ahead if they can. Big events like weddings can affect the in-store supply so it’s best to place an order well in advance.

Rob is the proprietor of Lucia, a bakery that offers not only delicious pastries but baked goods that offer a feast for the eyes! One look at their website will have you running to Lucia, located at 607 Kaliste Saloom Road. Lucia started out as a small batch, from-scratch bakery that began doing popups in our downtown area in late 2020, selling brioche-stuffed donuts (bombolonis) and then slowly began adding laminated pastries to the rotational menu. Lucia now concentrates on viennoise-style baking, a form of pastry made famous in France with origins in Vienna.

Mia proudly shares the expansion of her online event collections, which now includes 21 color palettes to choose from. This is a great option for a bride who just needs basic items or those who don’t want to go through the whole process of meeting. These collections can be used for bridal showers, baby showers, Christmas parties, or any special occasion. It’s also a great way for clients on a budget to order flower arrangements.

Mia graduated from the UL-Lafayette with a degree in interior design in 2008. She is passionate about color, texture and proportions, which she says helps her now in making her floral arrangements. After graduating, she took various jobs in product design and interior design in Dallas, Texas. She also was a waitress as Toulouse, the same restaurant Rob worked as a pastry chef.

When the couple moved back to Lafayette in 2012, Rob was the one who suggested she open a flower shop. So, she began creating and sharing her creations inside of a small portable storage building at her parent’s house in Cecilia. For a year she says she was “sending arrangements to as many businesses as I could”, like Carpe Diem or Kiki, to promote her work. She attributes good photography, Facebook, and her unique arrangements for her success. In the beginning she says, “there was lots of spray paint”. Within a year, she outgrew that location and moved to downtown Lafayette. Now she continues to provide beautiful flowers for events across Lafayette. It is an understatement to say that her company began to flourish; Root Floral has even been written up in Martha Stewart Living!

Lucía, a boulangerie and viennoiserie located at 607 Kaliste Saloom Road near St. Pius was opened by Rob Sandberg in 2021. He began in the bakery business by doing popups and later selling pastries at the Moncus Park farmer’s market where his brother Ruben Sandberg came on board. Lucía sold out each Saturday for about 2 years before Lucia opened on Kaliste Saloom. Rob says in the early days, he and Mia converted their sunroom into a bakery where their were frying donuts and making custards.

Lucía is open Wednesday – Saturday from 8 – 2, but Rob says, “we close when we sell out so usually, we don’t make it to 2”. The bakery is full of beautiful and delicious Viennese style pastries, croissants, Danishes, Bomboloni, lemon tarts and more. It’s a cozy atmosphere with 6 tables inside and outdoor seating available, although Saturdays are almost always busy, so Rob mentions the best times to go are from 8 – 11! The recipes are all created by Rob and his brother Ruben and he says, “we make everything from scratch”.

Rob got his start in 2008 where he attended a 2-year culinary school in Dallas, Texas. He describes his love of the “artistic side of cooking” and began working in a French restaurant (Toulouse) as a pastry chef making lots of souffles and as a garde manger making salads.

When the couple moved back to Lafayette in 2012, Rob got a job as a line cook working for Jolies. He then worked in restaurants that were just starting up, like Pop’s Po’boys. He notes that, “most restaurants I’ve worked in, I’ve worked in from the beginning”. He then took a break from restaurants and helped Mia with Root Floral for about a year.

During the pandemic, Rob decided he wanted to get back into baking and “wanted to do something different that no one else is really doing”. And he had no experience at that time baking pastries yet mastered hir craft beautifully. A few years later, Lucía Bakehouse is selling out within hours, constantly improving their menu and creating delicious treats.

Rob’s advice to up and coming entrepreneurs is to be careful with your funds. He obtained a $35,000 loan from Home Bank and utilized some of the couple’s savings. It is difficult to obtain loans as a newly minted business and never a good idea to get in over your head in debt.

To learn more about Lucía, visit https://lucialafayette.com/ or go to their Instagram @luciabakehouse.

To learn more about Root Floral, visit their website or Instagram @rootfloraldesign.